Echoes Of The Seven

Three Days Later

Eris nodded. “I have enough.”

“You’re sure?” Alex was rebuttoning her shirt, which had the sad effect of hiding her bra-clad chest from view. Eris was sitting on the stool in nothing but her panties, looking inwards.

“Yeah. Spending my points the last few days proved that Desire’s Reap needs two hundred and fifty points to reach level three. If I’ve been doing my math right, the current total in the skill is two-thirty-three. I only need seventeen more points and we just got thirty-one.”

Jaxie grinned while pulling her tank top over her head. “Alright then, let’s blow the top and see what’s next. My bet’s Oral.”

Eris managed to avoid blushing at that comment while she funnelled points until goosebumps rose on her skin. A shiver of warmth, and then it was over. Eris cleared her throat.

“Desire’s Reap. Passive, Level three. Engage in sexual acts with others to collect Desire. Desire is collected in the following ways; Kissing, Groping, and Oral. Additional Desire is collected based on the arousal of the active participant(s). Current Desire is fourteen.”

“Called it…” Jaxie held up a hand toward Alex, who shyly gave it a high-five. Meanwhile, Eris let the remainder of her points leak into the same skill and winced.

“Okay, that’s not happening anytime soon.”

“A lot?” Alex asked. Eris nodded.

“Oh yeah. Levelling from two to three was ten times the cost of levelling from one to two, and it certainly feels like absolutely nothing happened with fourteen points. This upgrade could very well be over two thousand points if that ten-times rule is a recurring pattern.”

“Well, you’re about to get a couple more members of your harem, so this new upgrade should mean you start getting some chunky profits pretty soon.” Jaxie smiled. Eris coughed up the sip of water she tried to take, then glared at her girlfriend.

“Jaxie! I’m not going to have sex with everyone I meet!”

“What?” She lifted her hands in a question. “That’s literally the optimal way for you to become stronger. If you like sex and it advances your progression, why not go for it?”

“Jaxie,” Eris glared. “Please.”

She huffed. “Fine.”

With that happy interaction, the three girls were free to continue their morning preparations. For Eris, that preparation ultimately came down to watching the oven while simultaneously scolding Jaxie whenever the Berserker started to play with tools or random workshop materials out of boredom. Eris intentionally kept the shop closed so she didn’t have to worry about serving breakfast while dealing with her other engagements. The first of those engagements ended up knocking on the door about twenty minutes after the three girls finished getting re-dressed.

“Hello Jasmine. Hello Alexandra. Hello Eris.”

Eris had almost forgotten Nima’s flatness in her speech, along with the way that her brown eyes were boring holes into Eris’s when she greeted them. Still, Eris managed to present a smile. “Hi, Nima. I’ll serve breakfast when the others show up. It shouldn’t be long.”

“That’s fine.” Nima walked in, took a seat at the table Eris set up as a counter/eating space, then proceeded to… sit silently. No attempt at conversation- just staring at Eris while the redhead stood awkwardly. Eris had to turn away from the rainbow-haired girl but she could still feel her gaze drilling holes through her back. Jaxie and Alex made no attempt to help, since they didn’t try to start a conversation. Eris was grateful when another knock happened on the door about two minutes later and two more girls walked in. The first extended a hand towards Eris, which the redhead accepted.

“You must be Claire,” Eris said.

She raised a quizzical eyebrow. “What gave you that impression?” Eris moved over to a notebook on the counter beside the woodstove.

“Jaxie and Alex gave me initial rundowns of who you are and what you can do. It’s easier to make gear for you when I know what your strengths and weaknesses are.” She flipped a page. “Party member option number one; Nima Odelia Gargrave. Spellblade. Strength, Dexterity, and Mind are always equal, can conjure a replica of one weapon being held and mentally control it up to forty feet away. Uses mana. Melee physical Striker with magical ranged capability. Weapon of choice is a spear and shield.”

She looked back at the girl in front of her and kept reading. “Party member option number two; Claire Beline Massato. Evoker focused entirely on electric magic. Lightning bolt, can retaliate with electricity when melee attacked, can spend additional mana when casting to cause spells to arc to nearby targets. Uses mana. Ranged magical Striker with AoE capability. Weapon of choice is a staff.”

“Well, what specifically told you it was me?”

Eris shrugged. “I wrote ‘tall’ beside your name in brackets when Jaxie and Alex described you.”

Claire nodded, her long brown hair bobbing with the movement. “Fair enough.”

When she backed away to make space for the last person, Eris took a cursory glance over the brunette. Shorter than Jaxie by maybe two inches, so she was probably hovering right near six feet tall. Unlike Jaxie, Claire didn’t have the musculature or the athletic build that set her apart as a warrior. Claire was lithe in her frame and so thin she could probably take a few shifts as a scarecrow and nobody would tell the difference.

She was dressed in a long-sleeved button-up blouse the colour of cream, and a pair of bright red shorts that ended shortly above her knees. Her hair was neatly brushed and pulled into an efficient-looking ponytail that was a few shades darker than blonde. Her skin, however, was substantially pale like she’d spent most of her life indoors and contrasted sharply against eyes that seemed damn near multicoloured. Eris wasn’t quite able to tell if they were green or blue.

Of course, the last girl in the room was a sight, too. She was grinning while she walked up, while also turning her gaze to Jaxie.

“Did you fuckin’ pick me to join your team because I look like your girlfriend? I can’t tell if that’s adorable or just sad.”

Eris… couldn’t deny the claim. Barely scratching five feet tall, green eyes, pale skin, orange freckles, and a slender build that was obscenely close to matching. All in all, the only differences came down to the girl’s hair being a more traditional shade of ginger whereas Eris’s was bright like it was dyed, and the girl having a noticeably smaller chest. And, of course, their comparative outfit choice. While Eris was dressed in long sleeves, jeans and shoes, the girl was wearing a forest-green tank top, grey pajama pants, and yellow flip-flops. Either she just got out of bed, or she simply didn’t care one bit about looking official.

What caught Eris’s eye, however, were the wisps of smoke. It was clinging to her ankles like the bottoms of her pajamas were smoldering, but it wasn’t wafting upwards like regular smoke. Instead, it sort of followed her, moving like she was the center of gravity and then hovering when she stood still. Eris blinked and turned her attention back to the notebook.

“Uhh… party member option number three; Meghan Pegguani Leghume. Shaman. Single-target health regeneration spell, single target poison spell, and controls a spectral wolf to distract or damage in combat. Uses mana. Support-oriented with ranged magical damage capability. Weapon of choice is an orb.”

She smirked. “Meggy Peggy Leggy, here to keep these idiots alive. So you’re the one who’s gonna be making our stuff?”

Eris nodded. “Yeah. I’ll be working very closely with Jaxie and Alex and whoever ends up being in their party. They’ve already informed me that when the Obelisk is open to new students tomorrow, the five of you are going in for a test run to see how well you work with each other. If you mesh well and stay, then you’ll get my services. If not, you’ll pay for them like everyone else.”

Sitting at the end of the table, Nima piped up. “I don’t believe many parties have a dedicated crafter so closely attached to the team. This could be a very beneficial opportunity for everyone involved.”

“How so?” Claire raised an eyebrow. Nima turned to her and Eris saw Claire flinch at that weird stare Nima tended to do.

“As a party, we would be receiving tremendous discounts on a majority of our equipment, allowing us to save our money and purchase specific items from other crafters that would otherwise be out of our budget but tremendously useful. As a crafter, Eris would be receiving first claim to any materials we pull from the Obelisk for no cost. It means less money needs to be spent on resources for our own equipment, and higher prices that Eris can offer for what she sells to others. Furthermore, having a crafter that fully understands the intricacies of how the party functions with each other and a rough idea of all our skills allows creative interpretation as to the most effective design of our equipment.”

Everyone in the room blinked, except for Nima. She turned her eyes to Eris. “You said you were waiting for the others before you served breakfast. Has that time not come?”

“Err- uhh… yeah.” Eris awkwardly turned around, grabbed oven mitts, and pulled the dish out of the oven where it was being kept warm. A minute later, all six girls were sitting around the counter and eating portions of an egg-and-potato casserole- Jaxie, Alex and Eris on one side and the three other party members on the other. Of course, it didn’t take long for someone to break the silence. That someone was Claire.

“So… you’re Jaxie’s girlfriend?”

Eris began to nod. Then, naturally, Jaxie decided to clear up whatever confusion there may have been by stirring up even more.

“She’s also Alex’s girlfriend.”

The Knight blushed into her plate while the rest of the girls looked between the Knight and the ‘Artisan’.

“Uhh, what?” Meghan raised an eyebrow. Jaxie grinned.

“Oh, don’t worry. Alex is my girlfriend, too.”

As if to prove her point, Jaxie leaned over, grabbed Alex’s chin and twisted their faces together for a surprise kiss. Then, while Alex was still reeling, Jaxie turned and did the exact same thing with Eris on the other side of her. The other girls were silent while Eris and Alex blushed. Nima spoke flatly.

“A polyamorous relationship doesn’t conform to very many societal standards. In most cases, having more than one active partner dictates the individuals involved as being whorish or unsure of their romantic desires.”

Eris blinked while Meghan coughed. “Little bit over the line, Rainbow.”

Nima blinked. “I wasn’t intending for the statement to be offensive, merely a factual and informative tidbit about the public perceptions of such a relationship. If I upset any of you, I apologize, and I would like to state that I have no personal opinion on the dichotomy of your relationship against the traditions of general society.” Then she turned her gaze to Meghan.

“Furthermore, I have asked you on multiple occasions for you not to address me by a nickname. If you are speaking to me, please refer to me by my name so that I know for certain you are talking with the intention of me as the receiver.”

“Who else in this room could possibly be ‘Rainbow’?” Meghan asked with a raised eyebrow. Nima’s expression remained unchanged.

“Anyone, based on how far the nickname is stretched. For example, it could have been a humourous title for Jasmine based on the premise that she wears little other than black, and would therefore be a nickname employed by irony.”

“Then how did you know I was referring to you?” Meghan grinned. Nima, again, stared blankly.

“Because I was the previous person to speak and from that, could deduce that the comment was likely made in regard to my statement.”

“So in a situation like this, where the intention of someone referring to you is clear, there’s no need to use a nickname, right?”

“It still adds a measure of stress, and it wasn’t clear. It was a measured assumption based on the context that happened to work out in this instance.”

“What if it was just you and I in the room? Then it would be perfectly clear that I’m only talking to you.”

“Even in that instance, I would prefer to be called by my real name instead of a nickname.”

“Alright, but what if we meet someone else named Nima?”

While the two girls proceeded to go back and forth in a series of questions that Meghan imishly intended to try and annoy Nima, only for the colourful-haired girl to respond with zero inflection of emotion, Claire leaned over the table towards Eris and gave a low whisper.

“For what it’s worth, I think you three make a very cute couple.”

Eris was nervous as she sat at her desk. It had seemed too weird a topic to ask about whenever her and Bailey were… in a lesson... but now was the perfect opportunity. They may have been naked since they just finished showering (which Bailey had a debilitating insistency that they did together), but it was still too early to go to bed. That left Eris at her desk, working out the details of a commission for a recurve bow that some girl had ordered while Bailey was lying on her stomach in her bed, nose buried in an alchemical tome that seemed to be all about the various applications of basilisk venom.

“Do you know what Zhuul Somnere is?”

Eris found herself blurting it out unceremoniously before she could lose her nerve and panic. Of course, the outcome of a sudden, unexpected question about something so seemingly random made her wince inside. She turned around slowly to see Bailey glancing up from her book with a raised eyebrow.

“I hope you don’t plan on trying to make it, because I think you’d get disappointed.”

That piqued Eris’s attention. She forced herself to speak.

“Err… no. I read the term somewhere but it didn’t say what it was, and it’s been driving me crazy. I just want to know what it is.”

“Ah, gotcha.” Bailey twisted herself into a seated position, cross-legged on the bed which was made very debilitating by her casual nudity. Eris had to keep her eyes trained on Bailey’s face.

“The short of it, it’s a toxin from some of the old stories and legends. It’s like a tranquilizer that was so strong it could put a deity into a coma.”

“Wait, really?”

Bailey shrugged. “It’s been a while since I read up on this stuff, so I’ll probably get a few details wrong but I’ll give it my best shot.” She cleared her throat. “So you know how all the magic in the world, and all the gods and stuff comes from the Stream, right?”

“The universal force of power beyond our perception of reality, yeah.”

“And you know how the Stream is described as an endless universe of ocean divided into two conflicting whirlpools pulling all energy in two directions?”

“Grohl, the Whirlpool of Life, and Grihm, the Maelstrom of Death.”

Bailey smiled. “Cool. Then you also probably know that when the Seven came to power, their divine essence was split by the two sides of the Stream. So you have the Seven; The Arbiter, the Zenith, the Primordial, the Cardinal, the Sovereign, the Warden, and the Oculus. But each of them is divided into two halves, each drawing power from and embodying one side of the Stream. The Zenith has Kiara the Harbinger for Grohl and Vinteus the Martyr for Grihm, just as an example, but they’re kind of like split personalities for the same godly figure. Still, they’re two seperate deities bound together in the same soul, or something like that.”

“Yeah, this is pretty basic knowledge. We don’t need to recap.”

Bailey scoffed. “Oh, well aren’t you little Miss Smartass? All this crap is old history, and you’d be surprised by how many people in this school don’t give a shit about stuff that was important four centuries ago. Just because you’re taught how to divide fractions in school doesn’t mean you’ll remember it in a few years, or even the next day. If it isn’t immediately important, people tend to leave information behind. I’m just making sure that you know all the deets, so try to learn a bit of patience, cutiepie. Let Mama Bailey get to her point.”

“...Sorry.”

“No worries,” She grinned and adjusted her sitting position. “Mizzari the Relict, goddess of love and the Grihm half of the Warden. Zhuul Somnere began when some guy whose name I can’t fuckin’ remember for the life of me prayed to her and wished for his true love to feel the same way and fall in love with him. I think the girl’s name was something like Admiri, or maybe Adimine? I don’t know, something with an ‘Ad’ and then a couple of ‘I’s. I’m just gonna go with Admiri for now. Anyway, Mizzari granted the wish, and the two fell in love with the condition that Admiri would love him for the rest of his life. Well, turns out the girl was already in a relationship with someone else, and the dude was furious. I mean, someone getting divine intervention to steal your girl? That’s gotta fuckin’ suck.”

Bailey idly played with a strand of her hair.

“Anyway, this dude that got cheated on prayed to Mizzari to help him kill the other guy, since the love was only stated to last until the end of his life. If the other dude killed him, the spell would break and the girl would love the first guy again. Wait, did that make sense? Screw it, let’s call the first guy Bill and the one who got cheated on Jeff, that way it’s clear. Admiri’s dating Jeff, and Bill comes along with Mizzari’s help to steal Admiri. Jeff gets real angry and prays to Mizzari to help him kill Bill. So Mizzari, who’s also the goddess of poison, gave Jeff something called the Heartblood Rose. It’s a flower that’s considered to be the most poisonous thing in existence, and could only ever be given directly by Mizzari if someone’s true and only intention is to destroy a love between others. One petal dipped into a drink could kill anyone on the planet. So, Jeff put the petal in Bill’s drink when Bill and Admiri were going to go on a picnic.”

“Did Bill die?”

“Nope.” Bailey shook her head, which also made her bare breasts jiggle. Curse her nudity.

“Jeff thought that he poisoned Bill’s drink, but he accidentally poisoned Admiri’s. Anyway, she died like, right there. Jeff was completely horrified by what he did and swallowed the entire flower to kill himself so he could be with Admiri again. Of course, even in the afterlife she was still charmed to be in love with Bill until he died, and he hadn’t, so her and Jeff never ended up together again. That only left Bill with a dead girlfriend.”

“I’m guessing he wasn’t happy?” Eris asked. Bailey clicked her tongue.

“Not one bit. Dude was pissed. Turns out, he was also a physician and was skilled at mixing medicines. He ended up finding the stem of the Heartblood Rose, and then refined it into a purified version that was even more toxic. He put one drop in a pond and it killed an entire ecosystem that relied on that pond as a water source.”

“What did he do with it?”

“Nothing. Bill continued his life. Found someone else, fell in love, and kept the poison hidden. Then, on the day of his wedding, he prayed to the Relict to officiate the marriage in person, which was already kind of a weird move since Talas, the other half of the Warden, is the one all about marriage and shit. Still, she showed up, and then the guy shot her in the leg with a bolt covered in the poison. Turns out, he faked his love and faked his marriage all to get petty revenge on the goddess who he felt wronged him.”

Bailey lied back on the bed, her poofy hair splayed out like a lion’s mane. “Anyway, Mizzari fell into a coma and Bill kept her prisoner, he ended up becoming a king or something because of it, yaddah yaddah, bullshit happens. Well, the other deities are all trying to cure Mizzari to wake her up, but nothing’s working. The dude made an incurable poison and out of desperation, Mizzari’s girlfriend Alda, the Grihm half of the Sovereign, literally pulled Bill directly into Grihm and imprisoned him to suffer until he finally decided to give up the cure.”

“Did he?”

“If the legends are true, that’s a big fat nope. Mizzari stayed comatose until all the deities died during the Sundering, and that’s why the poison earned its name of Zhuul Somnere. Forever Sleep. The only one who can make the ingredients is dead, and the only one who knows how to brew the poison or how to cure it is trapped for eternity in never-ending torment in a dimension made of magical death water.”

Eris was quiet for several moments. “Wow- that’s… something.”

“Yeah, it’s kind of like the origin story of the whole ‘love tale with a tragic ending’ trope. Real bummer shit, you know?”

In the moment of silence that followed, a knock sounded on the door. Bailey rolled her eyes, stood up, and walked over to answer the door. Eris was so distracted by both the story and the fact that Bailey was answering the door completely nude that she didn’t realise she, too, was naked until the door was already swinging open. All Eris could do was lean forward into the desk to try and hide her breasts while covering what else she could with her hands.

In the doorway were two figures in obvious sleepwear, one much taller than the other. Both were female, and the shorter one grinned while looking up and down Bailey’s bare body. Eris’s own eyes widened when the shorter girl spoke.

“We were told that this room is where to go when you want to have a good time.”

Bailey smiled. “Depends on what you’re into, but I can guarantee that I’ll have fun. Come on in, I haven’t actually had any proper visitors this week. Wait-” Bailey turned over her shoulder to look at Eris. “-You’re okay with this, right?”

Eris could only blink in response. Her eyes locked with both of the girls in the doorway, who raised curious eyebrows in response. They exclaimed simultaneously; “Eris?”

The naked redhead gently raised a hand after making sure everything was still hidden, then offered a small wave.

“Hi Meghan. Hi Claire.”

After some very awkward introductions with Eris continuing to hide herself in the desk the entire time, Bailey let out a simple;

“Ah.”

Claire coughed into her hand. “When Jaxie told us about here, she didn’t mention that you two were roommates.”

“So it would seem…” Eris muttered, immediately figuring out what was happening. “What exactly did Jaxie tell you?”

Meghan paused. “That the princess in room 1760 and her roommate would be more than happy to fuck if we asked nicely…”

Eris let out a sigh. “Of course she did.”

A few tense moments passed before Eris cleared her throat and looked at Claire and Meghan.

“Alright let me clear up some confusion. Jaxie, Alex and I are in a polyamorous relationship, but it’s also an open one. We are intending to bring it to a point where any of us can do whatever we want with whoever we want, but it takes a bit of time to build up to that point. Jaxie is obviously taking it upon herself to try and get me to hook up with every single damned person in this school, and that certainly includes whoever happens to be in the party if this little stunt is any indication. Does that help clear things up?”

Both girls looked at each other, then back at Eris. Claire raised an eyebrow. “Is this why Jaxie asked us if we were lesbians when we started talking about forming a party?”

Eris lowered her face into one hand. It was many moments before she spoke.

“You three do whatever you want. I’m going to bed.” She tried not to let her nudity bother her when she stood and quickly moved to slide under her blankets while facing away from the door. She heard Meghan awkwardly mumble while backing away.

“You know what? Maybe we should go.”

“Agreed,” Claire said.

Eris heard the sign on the door being switched to the ‘Go the Fuck Away!’ one and Bailey closed it softly. The blonde quietly sighed, then padded across the carpet before Eris felt the bed shift as Bailey sat down.

“I think I’ve got a pretty good idea, but do you want to tell me why you’re upset?”

Eris scrunched her face, gritted her teeth, then huffed and turned over to look at the blonde sitting on the side of the bed.

“I like the sex. I want to like it even more. It’s fun and I really, really want to keep doing it, but it scares the crap out of me. I actually want to be like you, to be honest. You’re so confident and carefree about all this sex stuff, and I want to be able to get to that point.”

Plus, I thought, I need to be like you since if I’m going to become strong enough to save the world.

“It’s just… I feel so useless about all of this. I love Jaxie, but she’s done absolutely everything for me. She set Alex and I up. She set you and I up. And now she’s trying to set me up with the rest of the party. I mean, you heard what they said. Jaxie even asked them about their sexuality when questioning them for the party! Her priority wasn’t finding people to make a good team- it was finding more people for me to hook up with.”

“You want to put in your own effort, and not have it be handed to you.” Bailey summed.

“I don’t know… maybe?” Eris sighed. “It’s just so frustrating. She’s so much better at this than me, so why do I have to be the whore?”

Bailey raised a quizzical eyebrow. “You don’t have to be anything. What makes you think you have to become a whore?”

Eris blinked a few times. Alarm bells went off in her head, and every function immediately started backpedaling. “No- no! I meant it like ‘Argh! Why do I have to be lactose intolerant but addicted to cheese?!’. Why do I have to be such a whore but so damn nervous about everything?”

Bailey’s eyes narrowed, but she eventually sighed. “Either way, it all comes down to you feeling inadequate at what you want to do, since you’ve needed someone else to help you at every point. You need a confidence boost in your ability to be slutty, and thankfully there’s a really easy way to do that.”

“How?”

“Simple. You get yourself laid.”

Eris’s thoughts fizzled. “Uhh, what?” Bailey smiled and laid down beside her, resting herself on one elbow. Her other hand poked Eris’s chest.

“You want to be a whore? Don’t make other people tell you how to do that. You go get dressed and you find the next notch on your belt by yourself. Then, I want you to go and bring back proof to Jaxie so you can show both her and yourself that you are more than capable of being a slut without her walking you through it.”

After a moment of silence, Bailey chuckled. “You think I’m kidding? Sweetcheeks, this is the next lesson from your casual sex teacher! Get up, get dressed, and go get in someone’s pants because I’m officially kicking you out of the room until tomorrow.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yep.”

“But…” Eris faltered a few times before she could find words. “But how do I-”

“Nope!” Bailey laughed and pushed Eris out of the bed, sending the redhead tumbling to the floor. When she scrambled back up to look at the blonde, Bailey had moved close enough that their noses were almost touching.

“If I tell you how to get this done, it won’t solve the problem. You need to show yourself that you can find a fuck without people helping you along, and without needing to rely on existing relationships.”

“Huh?”

Bailey leaned in and planted a kiss on the tip of Eris’s nose, making the redhead go cross-eyed.

“Cutiepie, I’m officially challenging you to go have sex with someone you’ve never met before.”